Office-bearers of Pakistan Society of Gastroenterology & GI Endoscopy at the concluding ceremony of a two-day course on ‘Basic Skills in Gastrointestinal Endoscopy’ here at the Department of Medicine, Holy Family Hospital on Saturday resolved to hold like activities in Lahore, Peshawar and Karachi in near future.
The two-day course was jointly organised by Gastroenterology and Hepatology Division of the HFH and Pakistan Society of Gastroenterology & GI Endoscopy with a main objective of training young gastroenterologists in basic techniques of GI endoscopy.
On second day of the course, President Pakistan Society of Gastroenterology & GI Endoscopy and Chief of the Gastroenterology & Hepatology Division at the HFH Professor Dr Muhammad Umar delivered a didactic lecture on lesion recognition in upper GI while the second course director Professor of Medicine at Rawalpindi Medical College and Consultant Hepatologist at the HFH Professor Dr Hamama-tul-Bushra trained the participants on lesion recognition in lower GI.
In ‘hands on training’ session, Professor Hasnain Ali Shah from Agha Khan University Hospital, Karachi, Colonel Amjad Salamat from Military Hospital, Rawalpindi, Professor Saleem Qureshi from KRL Hospital, Islamabad and Professor Arif Siddiqui trained the participants on upper GI endoscopy through live procedures.
On lower GI endoscopy, Army Medical College Principal Maj-Gen Tassawar Hussain, Professor Anwar A Khan from Sheikh Zaiyed Hospital Lahore, Professor Javaid Aslam Butt from Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, Islamabad, Colonel Shakeel Mirza from Military Hospital, Rawalpindi and Vice President Pakistan Society of Gastroenterology Professor Waseem-ud-Din trained the participants by performing live procedures.
Through live procedures on patients in upper GI cases, the participants were taught how to diagnose gastric ulcer, gastric cancer, aesophageal varices, aesophageal cancer, duodenal ulcer and duodenal cancer. For lower GI cases, faculty of the course train young professionals on how to diagnose ulcerative colitis, colon cancer, colonic polyp, colonic biopsy and hemorrhoids while serving in their respective district hospitals.
A total of 32 young physicians and gastroenterologists hailing from all the four provinces were imparted training during the course on basic skills in GI endoscopy. Most of these participants are serving in district hospitals.
“Soon, the Gastroenterology and Hepatology Division of the HFH will launch advance module of the course and after that we will train participants in final module,” said Dr Umar while talking to ‘The News’.
The trainers/faculty in the course on basic skills have requested both the two course directors on basic skills — Dr Umar and Dr Bushra — to design a curriculum for advance level module of the course on GI endosvcopy.
In the concluding session of the course, certificates were distributed among the participants.
To a query, Dr Umar said the course has been carried out as a part of Continued Medical Education in Gastroenterology and three provincial chapters of Pakistan Society of Gastroenterology have decided to provide courses on basic skills in GI endoscopy in Lahore, Peshawar and Karachi in near future.